What makes a good GM?

[bleu]

I been thinking what makes a good GM? And is there an expectation gap between what a GM thinks and Players thinks makes a good GM? And if so, how big is the expectation gap and can it ever be bridged?

1. Identify yourself (If you are a GM, just a short word saying that would suffice. If you are giving your point of view of what makes a good GM as a player - please state player. A silience would by default also mean you are a player.)

2. Try to limit to about 5-10 points.

My views as a player
What makes a good GM?

1. Good communication/ listening skills
2. Knowledgable at his/her GM job (technical, events, forum, website design, eathena, marketing, disciplinary etc...)
3. Good understanding about RO - game mechanics, character classes, skills, upcoming updates, RO news
4. Unbias (non-corrupt, independent, does not actively participate as a "player" in WOE and other high profile player activities). It's insufficient to be just unbias, a GM also has "appear" unbias.
5. Down-to-earth
6. Good character standing in the eye of the community
7. Hardworking and dedicated to his/her GM job
8. Smart
9. A positive outlook
10. Available (it doesn't help, if the GM is away most of the time, unable to perform his/her duties)

[Guest]

hmmm as a player i'd say a good GM would:

be respectful and professional at all times
take appropriate action without being bias
follow their own set rules
to care about their server and players, trying to make them happy
to be active, and doing their duties while online, not just fooling around


but its a completely different story when your an admin

[laoganma]

best GM to me is those who r:

1.) active ingame or at least in forum.
2.) dont play in the same server as his GM char, GMs who play tend to take sides.
3.) smart and honest, willing to admit mistakes u make, GMs tend to be arrogant thinking they r some sort of god and never wrong.

[Littlechan]

best GM for me as a player...

1)willing to learn and willing to admit mistakes

2)don't mix real life trouble with in game trouble

3)stay on their own rules (I've seen many GMs who didn't obey the rules of the server)

4)active, no online and then AFK

5)stay neutral, I hate GMs who taking side

[Loki]

What makes a good GM?

For me it would be.

1)Not a GM
2)Not Bias
3)Easy to communicate(every aspect that goes into this, no need to emphasize)
4)Organized

Wait...scratch no.1

[Aris]

do everything that you possibly can, not whats just part of your role like, don't just bot hunt if you're a bot hunter, host some events or help people when you can.

[Ayu]

Anyone knows the standard "motto" of "don't be biased, don't take sides, be active, be helpful, be decisive on good choices." It's more a problem on how to do it. GMs join a server to enjoy their time there too as they (or most of them) aren't paid workers. How should an admin balance the fun to a GM and limit their GMs to a fair balance?


"Be online/active" then do what? Bot/Macro check and the usual job aside, GMs ought to actually casual chit-chat with the community. Don't have to always be answering questions... just talk and bond. Some argues that GMs making friends are a bad thing as now they have conflicts of interest and will be biased, but it makes the GMs human instead of some frightening "oh no, GM is talking and no one asked a technical question, bad things will happen now" rule-breaker hunter. Your very presence can help in giving control to just how good or bad a community is. Some server admins always take the excuse of "well I don't control the community if such and such happens" against some negative reviews, but you have some degree of influence if you chat and talk with the community. Your own tone of voice has a huge influence to how the community will turn out to be. There are some cons to it, but I think the pros outweigh the cons.

Most players play RO as a bunch of online geeks gathering to chat under the guise of beating up some orcs, skeletons and other geeks in pvp. Huge aspect of RO is still pure socializing. Tough, necessary yet unpopular decisions are easier to make when the community gets to know you, understands you and will also try to support you too.

[Auroraâ„¢]

In some shape, form, or way, there's always going to be at least one time in a GM's career where they came across a "biased or corrupt" situation. The question is, whether or not they have the will power to keep things as fair as possible.

It's human to have flaws and make mistakes, and if you're someone who thinks they can claim that they are perfect and makes no mistakes, may you be the first to cast the stone upon. I know for a fact I've made mistakes, I can admit it. I know that I've made slightly biased decisions before, be it as a GM, as a player, or iRL. People get touchy feely about the idea of a biased GM, and even though I can understand, biased is a word that's thrown around too easily towards people who only make these small mistakes. It's true, some GMs actually do do it on purpose, and some GMs honestly just don't care, but I know that out of the majority of honest GMs versus the minority of actual corrupt/biased GMs, the majority is always ruled corrupt and unfair. I have seen so many GMs with a potential either be forced to leave, or quit over one mistake that was made that was ruled to be biased or unfair. Quite honestly, people should just stop throwing these words around everywhere they could possibly fit just to better benefit a situation to themselves. Now, this isn't an insult to everyone who does use the term biased towards a lot of GMs, simply stating the obvious, in my own personal opinion.

Aside from that, quite honestly, the thing that makes a good GM, to me, is kindness, professionalism, randomness, knowledge and goofyness. There are way too many people out there who say that being a GM is all about being the strict-"icanthaveanyfunandihavetobeinyourfaceallthetime" figure. However, there's a huge difference between laying back and relaxing every now and again, and abusing your powers as a GM to entertain/benefit yourself or your friends. It definitely is a plus when actual in-game GMs know what they're doing universally, but let's be honest, 5/10 GMs out there aren't going to have a clue about actual scripting when they're hired, and if they do, it's slim to nothing. There's nothing wrong with training the interested, though. Also, I don't entirely agree with the idea that they won't help the server move if they can't do everything. That's not true, because with an honest, good GM that's simply there to enforce, support or throw events (and they actually know what they're doing, not just slinging around crap), that's going to be huge steps in your community, which quite honestly, is the most important thing a server can have - an amazing community.

All in all, I believe the qualities of a GM would consist of, but not limit to:

• kindess - which is a key virtue
• patience - which is something most players expect, as well as administrators
• randomness - when I say randomness, I mean personality-wise, which isn't a widely known virtue that people would honestly like in their staff. I, personally, would prefer random-ish people among my staff, simply because that's the kind of person that makes me laugh, and that's the kind of person I like to surround myself with.
• professionalism - quite obviously, it's a given. if you don't know the appropriate times to be professional about a certain situation, you probably shouldn't be looking for a job as a GM.
• goofy - this kind of goes in with being random. some GMs just need to learn how to relax and have fun with the people around them. I, personally, as a player, love goofy GMs, and absolutely adore GMs that now how to lay back and have a good time.
• knowledge - obviously. if you don't know much about the field you've been hired to specialize in, you really.. shouldn't be on a staff.

[Poki]

Aurora makes a good GM because she knows the needs of one.

I have to hand it to you, those are the type of GMs that I deem as "good".
Unfortunately, it's best if the server had more than one GM because there's bound to be a few players that like different type of personalities.  One may like a goofy one, while another will want the opposite.  In other words... there's more than one type of good GM I suppose.

[RhythmGate]

well i'm not a gm yearning to be one but no experience as a gm makes me have a disadvantage anyway to cut this crap

my opinion about a gm from a player point of view is that GMs are the pillars of the server and these qualities are what are feel needed

able to spontaneously answer questions regarding their server

helpfulness - help out as much as possible and stay free of temptations because temptations leads to corruption

randomness - being random because while being random a gm can make friends with the player in a player player relationship w/o the player being pressurized to feel as if he/she is talking to a gm

kindness - being able to reach out for weaker players like giving them a basic build for them to work on when they ask (for builds) and will allow players to learn from experience and give them a sense of accomplishment when they are able to start pwning

patience - being able to lend a ear out for people with complains and people with trouble be it personal or RO troubles

love and care - being able to love and care for their own players can possibly and hopefully treat the players as if they are your own child make them feel at home

humorous - put up jokes from time to time that will allow the players to feel warmth in a server

integrity - admit that you have lost if your pvp skills ain't there and not resort to @item2

passion to learn - when you have lost admit it and learn from your mistakes climb up from your fall and make a better build

dignity - do not be a pawn of the players although GMs should take the suggestions of players into hand and try their best to make it into a reality unlike just putting the suggestion topic on the forums just for show and not care about any of the suggestions or not taking the suggestions into hand just because that player is a noob

justice - being able to met out with punishments appropriate for the players with warnings so that players get chances to learn from their mistakes instead of an auto perma IP ban which will only cause hatred

diligence - being able to continuosly provide updates for the players while keeping tightly knitted bonds between players and gms while not making players feel pressurized

enthusiasium - being able to continuously strive to be better instead of just staying stagnant and having a 3 minute interest to be a GM

activeness - being active while making players feel happy and safe knowing that the pillar of the server is there  and that the server will never fall

creativeness - being able to brainstorm for more ideas that will keep players busy when the players have nothing to do these can range from just random chatting or making new events or event implementing new things

distinct heart - being able to see how players react and act accordingly (like they say when in rom do what romans do) if a player doesn't like a happy side of you turn into a sad side of yourself or bored side just to make the player feel happy for that short period of time as long as you can touch his/her heart

privacy - keeping themselves private (accounts) and have very clear cut mind as not to itemlist people just for the sake of builds

confidence - the ability to talk to players with confidence and letting them know that everything is fine and they can be open with you

well thats all i could think of because thats what i use to keep my class together i'm sorry if they don't sound like GM's stuffs because i've never been a gm before feel free to criticise about it because its the only way i can learn~

[Magnus]

Dedication - Most servers applied with this character on its GMs really succeeded in every different ways.

Good Communication Skills - Able to speak confidently with the necessary manner on particular issues.

Fairness - Servers that lacks on this are mostly corrupted.

Loyalty - This is a MUST.